


Wakandan Wi-Fi

by AnExhaustedArmadillo



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Communication, Flirting, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nostalgia, Skype
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 13:08:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15292194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnExhaustedArmadillo/pseuds/AnExhaustedArmadillo
Summary: "We're so sad." Bucky laughed. Steve broke out into a pixelated smile."We really are. Just two old men rehashing the same things from 70 years ago.""Stuck in the past." Bucky agreed.Just a skype date between Steve and Bucky while Bucky's in Wakanda





	Wakandan Wi-Fi

**Author's Note:**

> I read somewhere online that Steve and Bucky had skype dates so i just had to get some feelings out.
> 
> also kind of pre-slash, I guess, but they both have feelings for the other.

Once Bucky had woken up in Wakanda, Hydra programming gone from his head, Steve had contacted him. Bucky had appreciated it, it was nice to know someone cared for him, especially someone who knew all the stuff that he'd done. Steve and Bucky Skyped, after that, normally at least once a week. Skype had been hard at first, Bucky might've been a super soldier but one thing they didn't cover in training was how to use Skype. He also wasn't used to the idea of regular human contact with someone he didn't serve. That part he was still getting used to.

Today was typically the day he and Steve would talk. So, once Bucky finished his work for the day, he went back into his hut to clean up a bit and await Steve's call. Bucky liked his work in Wakanda, it was simple, straightforward, but it still kept him occupied, and it made him feel accomplished, purposed. Bucky liked the fact that Steve was always the one to contact Bucky, giving him the choice to accept or decline. Bucky had only ignored Steve once, on a particularly bad day when he just needed to be alone. Hydra's programming may be gone, but the scars were still there. 

"Hey." Bucky greeted Steve warmly, opening up the communication program on his computer.

"Hey, Buck," Steve said "How was your day?" Small talk. Bucky liked the small talk. He understood the coded question behind the trite one, and yes, Bucky had had a mentally sound day. 

"It was good. Threw some hay, fed some goats. Exciting stuff. You?" 

"Yeah, my day was good. Sam asked about you, do you want me to tell him you said hi?" Steve replied. Bucky noticed that he avoided disclosing details about his day, which Bucky was grateful for. Steve only really did that if he'd had a conflict heavy day, which Bucky was always torn over. Because on the one hand, he didn't want to fight anymore, but on the other hand, it was _Steve_ , and Bucky felt like he should be there.

"Yeah, I'm sure Sam is real concerned about my well being." Bucky answered skeptically.

"Well, full disclosure, he was asking how much longer he had before you came back." Steve said, probing with all the grace of his pre-serum self. Bucky sighed.

"Tell him it's an undetermined time frame." Bucky said, though he wasn't happy saying it. Steve visibly swallowed, Bucky could see him grip his laptop screen tighter. 

"You sure? I mean, it's fine if you're not ready," Steve reassured him "I don't want to pressure you. I just want you to know that any time you feel like leaving Wakanda, there's people out here for you." _Person_ Bucky corrected in his head. It was really just the one. And for the most part, Bucky was okay with that. Even if he felt like he was constantly letting that person down.

"Yeah, I know, I just," Bucky looked away from his computer screen "I just don't want to disappoint you."

"Disappoint me? What are you talking about?" Steve asked, confused, but not clueless. They'd been dancing around this topic for awhile. 

"Steve, I'm not who you knew back in the forties. I'm not who I was with Hydra, either. But I don't want you to-" Bucky was glad when Steve cut him off.

"Bucky, I get that. I get that you're not who you were. But in case you haven't noticed, I'm not either. People change, it doesn't mean we're not worth fighting for. You're still my friend." Steve was so earnest sometimes it made Bucky's heart ache. He nodded, not responding. 

Steve got the signal, "Besides, no one else from the forties aged as well as us, we've gotta stick together." He joked. 

" _Sexy_ senior citizens." Bucky responded slyly. Steve chuckled, which Bucky considered a victory. 

"Exactly, gotta date someone physically our age without feeling like an old creep." Steve observed. Bucky supposed Sharon had been that compromise; a relative of someone from the good old days, but not someone who's already lived a life.

"Difficult task. How're things with Sharon?" Bucky asked, Steve hadn't brought her up for a few weeks. Bucky knows why when he sees Steve's face.

"I've heard that she's good." Steve said, not sounding particularly bitter, just forlorn. Bucky thinks it might be appropriate to console him.

"Things'll work out. You'll get somebody." Bucky tried to be general, but not glib. Bucky gave a tiny smile to his computer camera.

"You said that when I was small, too, and I never found anyone." Steve argued. Bucky remembers some of his attempts to _find_ Steve someone, and suddenly he feels a little more like Bucky Barnes.

"Yeah, and I got you tons of somebody's and then you got big and now we'll never know if any of it would've worked out. Good job." Bucky retorted. Steve rolled his eyes.

"They _never_ wanted me, I was just there to make it look a little-" Steve rambled on. _I wanted you_ a voice in the back of Bucky's head whines. 

"It would've worked out fine but you had no confidence so-" Bucky talked over Steve.

"I didn't really even _want_ somebody, I just wanted to hang out-"

"I only went and got girls so that-"

"I would've been fine with just the two of us!" Steve finally finished.

"Well then I guess I wasted a bunch of girls' time for nothing!" Bucky stopped. He and Steve are both smiling, but there's a little bit of sadness under it. Bucky may not remember everything, but he just knows he would've grown old with Steve, just the two of them, bachelors for life. It would've been quiet and quaint and peaceful. 

"I guess it's a sort of moot point now, I'm muscular and tall and I'm still single." Steve lamented lightly. Bucky strokes the back of his computer.

"Yeah, but," Bucky argues on instinct "It's all their loss. I'll grow old with you if you never find anyone." Bucky promised, maybe a little too much weight in his words. For a second, he's nervous. 

"I'm gonna hold you to that." Steve said intently and Bucky feels warm. It strikes him that maybe, at times, he's all Steve has, too.

"We're so sad." Bucky laughed. Steve broke out into a pixelated smile.

"We really are. Just two old men rehashing the same things from 70 years ago."

"Stuck in the past." Bucky agreed.

"Sometimes it's easier than the present." Steve's voice was laced with nostalgia. Bucky nodded. What he wouldn't give to go back to simpler days.

"Who'd have thought we'd miss the Depression?"

"And the war?"

"Polio?"

"I do _not_ miss polio." Steve assures him, smiling

"The music is really so much better now." Bucky resigned.

"Are you serious? All that pop? The songs sound the same! Disagree."

"Okay, maybe, but the movies are definitely a lot better." Bucky continued.

"So many genres now." Steve said. Bucky sometimes worries that Steve gets overwhelmed by all the options of the twenty first century, but movies help both of them fill in the gaps.

"There's so much technology!" Bucky marvels.

"It's way too complicated." Steve rationalizes.

"There's Skype." Bucky reasoned. Steve smiles.

"There's Skype." Steve repeated. The silent _"There's you"_ did not go unheard.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment if you're feeling generous! Thanks for reading!!!


End file.
